That was the explanation Brandon Battering gave after J&C photographer John Terhune took a shot of him walking at the intersection of Ninth and Main streets with a bundle of three U.S. flags across his shoulder. Where he gathered all the flags, he didn't say. It made for an interesting picture.

But the social media grousing from just a few blocks away started early Monday morning on Ninth Street Hill after the photo appeared on Page A2 of the paper.

"I think we all know where those flags came from," Jane Boswell grumbled. She's a Ninth Street Hill resident who for the past 25 years has helped coordinate the neighborhood's Festooned Fourth display, featuring full-size flags representing U.S. history hanging on residents' porches, along with smaller versions of Old Glory planted along the sidewalk between South and Kossuth streets.

"Look at the fresh dirt at the bottom of the staff," Boswell said. "I guess what we're left with is, are we expecting too much to want all citizens to be better civilized?"

We are, of course, talking about a handful of flags on three-eighths-inch dowels that Boswell estimated cost between $1 and $1.50 apiece. No one bothered to toss around the word "theft" or suggest filing a police report for something so small in value. Maybe it was something closer to picking flowers from a garden along the fence line.

Instead, they settled for a variation on a theme: Can't we have nice things?

The point: Putting up public displays in yards or public art on downtown streets involves some calculated risk that people will be cool. It also involves the expectation that someone — somewhere, somehow, for some reason — won't be.

"You have to assume the best in people, or you have a place devoid of character," said Bev Shaw, West Lafayette's greenspace administrator and part of the West Lafayette Public Arts Team. "When you lower the bar and childproof everything, you wind up with nothing. And what good is that?"

The number of public art installations continues to rise on both sides of the Wabash River, with murals in downtown Lafayette alleys and the promise of various displays once West Lafayette and Purdue take on a State Street redesign.

Margy Deverall, a planner and project manager in Lafayette's Economic Development Department, said there's some sense of safety in numbers on this.

"I like to think the more we have out there, the more people think, 'That's mine. Let's take care of it,'" Deverall said. "But, you know, there's always a chance that you'll get that one person."

"We don't know what to expect, but we're prepared for anything to happen," said Caryl Matthews, one of the Pianos for the Street organizers. "This has been done in other places. Valparaiso is the closest, and they tell me people even put coasters on the pianos before putting their drinks on them. We'll see."

Matthews said the biggest problem could be rainy weather — other than the logistics of making sure piano benches don't walk away.

"We have a Plan B and a Plan C and we'll come up with more if that happens," Matthews said. "But hopefully, we'll be talking about nothing but just great music."

Boswell said 25 years of the Festooned Fourth has taught her neighborhood a thing or two about backup plans.

"We always lose a few (flags) every year. I have a gross on hand at the start, because we know some will disappear," Boswell said. "It's kind of sad. Not like it would ever stop us or anything, heavens no.